The trade union leader's alleged killer promises to reveal the names of the conspirators involved.

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N K Singh

December 31, 1995

ISSUE DATE: December 31, 1995

UPDATED: July 1, 2013 13:40 IST

The accused: Paltan Mallah, an alleged professional killer, cites a threat to life from the conspirators as the reason for deciding to come clean

It was high drama in the court of Durg's second additional sessions judge. T.K. Jha. last fortnight. In a dramatic development, Paltan Mallah, the alleged killer of radical trade-unionist Shankar Guha Niyogi, promised to reveal the names of those he said had conspired to murder Madhya Pradesh's almost legendary labour leader.

In a petition moved before the judge who is hearing the Niyogi murder trial. Mallah also alleged that he faced a I hreat to his life from the people who were behind the assassination.

Niyogi, then 48. had been shot dead in his sleep in the early hours of September 28. 1 991. at his union office in Bhilai in what was described as the first political murder in the history of the state. The killing evoked widespread condemnation and forced the Government to hand over the probe to the OBI. After two years.

The Murdered Shankar Guha Niyogi was a legend among the areas's workers

ChronologySeptember 28, 1991: Gunshots fired from a 0.12 bore country made pistol kill Niyogi in his sleep at his union office at Bhilai, Madhya Pradesh. Paltan Mallah, the alleged assassin, absconds from Bhilai the same day. December 21, 1991: The cbi declares an award of Rs 1 lakh for information leading to Mallah's arrest.January 9,1992: The cbi files a charge-sheet in a Durg court against nine persons and "others unknown".April 1992: B.K. Singh, one of the witnesses who had confessed that Mallah had taken his help in procuring three cartridges on September 14, 1991 (two weeks before the murder), dies in a mysterious hit-and-run accident.August 21, 1993: Mallah is arrested by iaf Police at Gorakh-pur cantonment and handed over to Uttar Pradesh Police. December 2, 199S: Mallah promises to reveal the names of the conspirators in the murder.

Mallah, an alleged professional killer who was absconding, was arrested, and charged by the cbi with murdering the trade union leader at the behest of certain industrialists of the area.

The alleged motive for the crime: business losses suffered by the industries as a result of the agitation launched by Niyogi's union.

On December 2. Mallah moved a petition before Jha expressing his desire to come clean because of medical reasons. He said that he had been advised surgery for his kidney problem.

He also alleged that another accused in the Niyogi murder case had tried to poison him in jail last year, and that he faced a threat to his life from the Shah brothers, the owners of the Simplex group of industries (annual turnover Rs 90 crore), and K.P. Kedia, the owner of the Kedia group of distilleries (annual turnover Rs 300 crore).

if he was operated in Delhi or Bombay. Therefore, he said, he wanted to get himself operated at Madras under CHI supervision. The court has fixed December 18 for the hearing of his statement.

A day before this startling development. Mallah's lawyer had moved an application in court seeking the inclusion of the names of Kedia and one of his employees in the list o! the accused.

The accusedChandrakant Shah stepbrother of the owners of the simplex group of industries - who allegedli hired Paltan

A Curious CaseApril 29, 1991: Niyogi received a letter warning him that Shah was conspiring to murder him. Niyogi's union hands over a photocopy of the letter to the Durg police.October 3, 1991: Shah, who allegedly hired Mallah for assassinating Niyogi, absconds from Bhilai five days after the murder.December IS, 1991: Shah surrenders, following acceptance of application for anticipatory bail by the state high court. He claims he had been "abducted". April 28,1992: Shah is found "missing" from police custody while undergoing treatment at Raipur's D.K. Hospital. The cbi announces a Rs 1 lakh award on information leading to his arrest. January 1993: A magisterial inquiry holds the police responsible for Shah's escape from jail, October 20, 1993: Shah surrenders in a Raipur court. Again claims he had been "abducted". April 29, 1995: Raipur court acquits Shah of the charge of absconding because the police fails to prove that he was under custody at the time or that he had intentionally escaped.

Kedia does not figure in the CBI charge-sheet filed in January 1992. Besides Mallah. the main accused include Moolchand Shah and Navin Shah, the two brothers who run the family-owned Simplex group of industries, and Chandrakant Shah, their stepbrother. Apart from Mallah who is in Jail, all the other accused are out on bail. All of them have denied the charge.

What prompted Mallah to move this petition? One reason could be his ill health and, as he says, the alleged threat to his life.

Another reason could be that he was, only last fortnight, convicted to 10 years' imprisonment in another criminal case (of attempted murder and possession of an illegal firearm) by another court in Durg. There seems little likelihood of his coming out of jail in the near future.

In a cautious reaction, Balod MLA Janak Lai Thakur, president of the Chhattisgarh Mukti Morcha, the organisation Niyogi led, said: "We cannot react till Mallah makes his statement. But we have received reports that certain persons are using this time for suppression of evidence."

However, Kedia is worried. He told INDIA TODAY: "I am innocent. I have never met Mallah. I have nothing to do with him. I do not know why he is trying to implicate me." Incidentally, a month before he was killed, Niyogi had tape-recorded himself saying that he faced a threat to his life from Moolchand Shah and Kedia. This now forms part of the evidence in court.

What has added to the drama is the legend built around Niyogi. While his Maoist leanings had made him a source of awe in the area, his union's role in spreading education and raising awareness among workers and women has been the subject of study by social scientists and political activists across the country.

Niyogi had also transformed himself from a middle-class leader to what he called a member of the proletariat. He did this by working as a sharecropper, a farm hand, a miner, a shepherd and later, by marrying a co-labourer, Asha.

THE BEREAVED:Asha Guha Niyogi lives with her children in the same hut in the colony her husband had built

Asha Guha Niyogi still lives in the same hut in the worker's colony that her husband had built, with their two daughters. Kranti and Jeet. and son, Mukti. The union is no longer the force that it once was. For one thing, it lacks the leadership of a towering personality like Niyogi.

The sprawling union office at Dalli Rajhara mines, where Niyogi had started his spectacular struggle and where his remains were brought for final rest, has been turned into a shrine in his memory.

An earthen lamp burns round the clock below his portrait, casting a glow on the urn that contains his ashes. Says Ganesh Ram Choudhary. organising secretary of the Chhattisgarh Mines Shramik Sangh: "The workers have resolved that they will not immerse Niyogi's ashes until the murderers are punished." With the trial now set for what promises to be a significant twist, it may not be long before the workers' hopes are fulfilled.

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